Unfair Electricity Rates by Assam State Electricity Board

On Thursday, the Assam Legislative Assembly passed the Assam Electricity Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2018, despite Congress MLAs staging a walkout alleging that the passage of the Bill would result in higher cost of electricity, thus increasing the burden on consumers. This is not an irrational fear, considering that the new avatar of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) has a track record of approaching the Assam State Legislative Assembly only when it is in acute need of additional funds to keep the ASEB alive. This happens about twice a year. This is because in about 50 years there has been no planning or thinking about increasing the generation capacity of the ASEB to levels that would enable it to cope with the normal increase in the number of consumers over 50 years as well as the increased dependence of the population on electrical devices and gadgets for day-to-day needs. The very opposite of what happens in sensible States has been happening in Assam. Instead of the power generation increasing over the years, there has been a sharp decline in output. From the generation of 514 MW, the power output of Assam has dropped to less than 200 MW. Instead of being able to talk in terms of anything like 20,000 MW, the State is now obliged to regress to an output of under 200 MW. Officers in the ASEB and its new avatar, who receive fairly handsome salaries to provide power to the State, must be made answerable to the public as to why the State has had a fall in power output from 514 MW to below 200 MW in about 50 years and why people are expected to pay far higher tariffs for electricity than what consumers are paying in other States.